Time machine: want to copy onto Dropbox

[gilesbelfrage]

Hello, I have a time machine backup with 650GB of stuff. Meanwhile I have been told not to store my movies and music on my apparently frail Macbook Pro. The repair shop has left me with 180GB on the laptop, I would like to copy my Time Machine stuff onto Dropbox, salvage the movies and music from there and play them from Dropbox. The VLC app works, I've tried it.

The connection does not work but I have adjusted the laptop settings to allow communication. Something else is stopping it. What's the best thing to try now?

Thanks

[Walter]

Hi there @gilesbelfrage, thanks for posting on our Community!

I'm not quite sure where the issue lies and where Dropbox comes into play. Can you elaborate on your query a bit? 

If you're getting an error or you get stuck at some point, please send us a screenshot so that we can have a visual too. 

Thanks!

[gilesbelfrage]

Good morning Walter: Thanks for replying. My Macbook runs Catalina. It had 650GB on the hard drive. It was backed up to Time Machine, showing roughly the same amount of storage. I connected Time Machine to the Mac using USB. After about 5 minutes the Dropbox logo showed a red circle. Upon clicking on it this attached image showed up. I clicked view now and one of the suggestions was to tell the Mac to give Dropbox access. I clicked on 4 or 5 boxes on the Mac, clicked the padlock and tried running backup again. After 5 minutes I got the same message. Presumeably I eliminated the Mac connection issues but there are still problems. I didnt understand the other possible issues so hoped it was possible to suggest other things I could try. Thanks for your help. 

[Jay]

Hi @gilesbelfrage, generally, we don't recommend using Time Machine with Dropbox or backing it up there, as there could be issues with security permissions, access rights and even data corruption.

Most likely, this is the reason why the app isn't able to backup the Time Machine backup on the external drive.

[gilesbelfrage]

Thank you for your reply and the detail you went into. Are there sometimes problems on the Dtopbox backup or the exiting files on time machine? I’m interested only in the mp3 music files and the movie files being backed up and played on Dropbox. Is there hope for this idea or a different method? Thanks

[Jay]

It would be similar to having multiple cloud backups to the same folder, there would be syncing and rights issues (as in, does Dropbox or Time Machine own the files at a particular moment). This is why we recommend not restoring the Dropbox folder to a new machine/installation using the Time Machine feature.

The two systems provide similar functions, but can't really 'communicate' with one another. This article refers to Dropbox Backup specifically, but applies to the normal Dropbox syncing feature.

[gilesbelfrage]

Surely I own the files. I created them and tried to put them in the care of a back up company.

[Hannah]

Hey @gilesbelfrage!

Can you click on the "view now" option on the notification and send us a screenshot of the errors you see there?

Also, please send us a screenshot of anything shown when you hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar as well.